BLOOMINGBURG — A large and raucous crowd wanting answers about a 396-unit town-house development shut down a Village of Bloomingburg meeting Thursday night.

More than 130 people packed into tiny Village Hall with about 50 more waiting outside. As the meeting started, audience members, many wearing Rural Community Coalition shirts, shouted and chanted to have the venue changed to accommodate the large number of people attending. The coalition is a month-old citizens group dedicated to protecting "the rural environment of the Town of Mamakating and the Villages of Bloomingburg and Wurtsboro, according to its mission statement.

The shouts about violations of open meetings laws and the number of people in the room being far beyond its fire capacity of just 85 people eventually won out. After a brief discussion, the meeting was shut down and Village Attorney John Kelly rescheduled it for Aug. 22. The new venue hasn't been decided. "We knew there was going to be a large amount (of people) but not this many," Bloomingburg Mayor Mark Berentsen said.

Shalom Lamm, the developer of the project, showed up to put on a presentation about the Chestnut Ridge project but agreed with the crowd about the change of venue. "I want to talk to everybody and I'm siding with you," Lamm said.

Deputy Mayor Cliff Teich said he felt the meeting didn't go well and audience members felt cheated.

"This was a fiasco, a total abortion," said Teich about the meeting.

The development was approved two years ago, but neighbors began to actively oppose the project recently when Lamm put up three homes. Most people said they were concerned about the number of people the development would draw into a village that had a population of just over 400 last year.

"I feel like they have not looked at the state quality review adequately, or at all," said Mary Donnelly, a Rural Community Coalition member. Yvonne Caplandies, who lives in Mamakating, said the number of houses being proposed was too big. "This thing is on the extreme end of high density," said Caplandies. Holly Roche, organizer of the Coalition, said she had spoken to Kelly earlier in the week about the number of people planning to attend the meeting and other members had left messages. "They were notified," said Roche.